


Visits

by taotrooper



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Spoilers - No Mercy Route, Spoilers - Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 05:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4992469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taotrooper/pseuds/taotrooper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps Flowey didn’t lose his soul afterwards, and there was still salvation. Post-True Pacifist route.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Visits

"Frisk..." the little monster insisted. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

The human child didn't seem willing to move from the spot at first, and every time they spoke to Asriel it was harder to say goodbye. At some point, a beep came out of his friend's pocket. He stared with big sad eyes as Frisk read a text message, perhaps by one of their friends, and walked away in strides.

Finally, silence and loneliness. He could only see the the yellow of the flower bed and the white of his own fur. It was only a matter of time before the white turned into yet another yellow. His hands shook, in expectation of the moment in which they would become evergreen leaves.

Asriel could not tell how much time had passed until he heard rushed footsteps once again. Someone was running towards the bottom of the chasm again. He recognized those determined feet.

"Frisk..."

The child was back, gasping for breath and holding something round. They stood in front of Asriel, pushing expectantly the dish towards him. It was cold and most of the pastry was gone and there were dog prints in it, but it was unmistakable.

"Butterscotch and cinnamon pie...?"

Frisk nodded.

"You took it from Mom's house."

Frisk insisted Toriel wouldn't mind, especially not if they were sharing it with a dear friend. Asriel's heart felt like it had been punched. They considered him a friend, after all he had done. And that was Mom's best recipe, one he had not eaten in a long time. Frisk knew it, and no doubt they had wanted Asriel to eat it while he could.

He held the plate with one hand, and he grabbed the pie with the other. He took a bite. The proportion of one ingredient was larger, but it was the old familiar flavor exploding in his mouth. Memories of a mother's warm fuzzy arms, of a father's meek laughter, of a soft bed, of love. Things he had lost and things that were gone forever.

Tears made their way down his cheeks. He had been holding in so well, but this emotion was too much. And even though the sorrow and the grief was heartrending, he was grateful to still have the soul to feel it. Indeed, it was much better than not feeling anything at all.

He devoured the pie, afraid to suddenly turn into a flower while there was still food left. He did not cared it was an undignified way for the former son of a king to eat. Only the taste and the remembrance mattered. Among the sobs, Asriel gave his brightest smile to the kid.

"Thank you, Frisk!" he said when he had finished.

Frisk nodded and left. It would be his last sight with his own eyes: the brown hair swaying and the back of the striped shirt. So similar but at the same time so opposite to his sibling. But Frisk... they really had been much more than expected.

With the sweet taste of butterscotch on his lips, calming the bitterness in his soul, he waited for his fate.

 

* * *

 

But then...

Despite reverting to his former form, he did not feel hollow inside.

The renewed soul of Asriel remained. Still unable to use the power of SAVE, yet it seemed a like a small loss in return. Had it been the contact to the human souls, or the monster souls, or just Frisk's influence? Whatever the reason, it mattered not.

He wasn't the old ruthless Flowey anymore.

 

* * *

 

Days had passed when he heard someone walking through the Ruins. To his surprise, it was Frisk once again.

"Howdy," he said, both pleased and appalled to see them. "I thought you had passed through the barrier. Gotten your happy ending."

"I did..." they said. "Didn't reset, just like you asked. This... is after the ending."

"Oh."

"I'll stay with Toriel for a while. Go to school. Learn more about monsters. Become a good ambassador."

"So staying in the goody shoes route, aren't ya?"

Frisk nodded as they unwrapped a monster candy.

"Can you eat? You have teeth and tongue, but do you have a stomach?"

Flowey shrugged. He frowned, sad droopy petals not unlike his old goat-like ears.

"You have better things to do than being here, Frisk."

On their next visit, Frisk brought a handheld video game console. After all, those were games that Flowey didn't know, and Flowey loved games and novelty. He didn't remember having so much fun, and Frisk kept coming back as often as they could.

 

* * *

 

One day, the footsteps approaching became much heavier. Flowey looked ahead, and he saw white furry feet and a familiar purple dress. Months before, he would've felt nothing except irritation. But that day, he felt the pain in his chest —or his stem. His eyes were filled with dew, and everything went blurry.

"My child?" said a female voice. The sorrow was more intense.

"If you're looking for Frisk," Flowey said, "the kid's not here today, lady."

"Oh. I see. If you excuse me, then..."

"Wait!!"

Toriel stopped and turned around her heels. She looked apprehensive. Flowey didn't know how much she remembered from when he stole those souls, hers included, but he was aware she had seen him attacking Frisk when they fell to the underworld. Either way, he should be a potential danger in her opinion.

Nonetheless... He took the plant equivalent of a deep breath.

"I... owe you an apology. I did some horrible things to you and your family. Even though I lacked a soul back then, that doesn't really condone my bad deeds and dark desires. Still, I have to tell you that I'm sorry and I've changed and I won't do anything harmful again."

Toriel pursed her lips and squinted at the flower.

"I understand," Flowey sighed. "I wouldn't believe me either if I were you. I'm not asking for forgiveness, but I do hope that you and that human are happy now."

Silence. Flowey didn't dare to look at her face.

"...I must go."

He heard her leave, and he felt relief to perceive a lack of hatred in her cold, nervous tone. His mother was stubborn when it came to grunges; that was a well-known fact. That morning, however, the dew over the golden flowers didn't come from humidity.

 

* * *

 

 

"Heh. Looks like you ain't having a good time."

Flowey didn't even hear anything before, suddenly, a skeleton monster was standing in front of the flowerbed.

"How did ya get here, buddy?"

"I know a shortcut. And we're not really buddies, not in this timeline at least."

"..."

True enough. In one of his loops, he had befriended Sans. In another he had likely killed him. The only thing he remembered about him was that his puns had become old fast. But how had that guy...?

"Can't tell in detail," Sans added, "but I'm aware enough. Unlike the others, I also recall a fair part of this dream in which a crazy yellow flower stole the human souls and all the monsters', and it became this overpowered, adult version of Asriel Dreemurr. The human kid saved us, and then we all woke up and the barrier was down." Sans winked, which was impressive considering he was a skeleton. "Know something about that?"

"..."

"Oh well," he shrugged, "not that it matters anymore. It's just a silly dream, right?"

"...What do you want? Do you want to destroy me to make sure y'all are safe from little old me? Go ahead, this time I would die."

"Nah. Honestly, it's pointless. Like you said, you can't do a thing right now. The danger lies within the kid, not you. They seem to be happy for some reason, so we'll be fine."

As usual, Sans was too lazy to even avoid potential world destruction.

"I think we should tell your parents that you're sort of alive. I don't care too much about you, if I gotta be honest, but your mom is a **bone** -a fide friend of mine."

Flowey's irritation vanished and was substituted with wistfulness.

"That would only make them sadder. It's better if they think their two gentle children are still dead."

Flowey thought he saw pity in Sans' eyes.

"Looks like the kid's a positive influence on you, if you're worried about their feelings. I guess you can say a soul has... **bloomed**."

A rimshot echoed in the cavern. Sans' hands abandoned his pockets as he shrugged.

Before Flowey could make a comment about the joke, Sans had disappeared in thin air.

 

* * *

 

 

It was a rainy afternoon, and Frisk and Flowey were under the ceilings of a puzzle of the Ruins, playing rounds of MTT Kart. The human's phone started ringing, and after exchanging some text messages a young monster lady peeked at their hideout from behind a door.

"H-here you are," Doctor Alphys babbled and looked right at the flower. "Um, hi. I understand if you don't want to see me again, but I came to talk to you. I-if you're okay with it."

She was one of the last people Flowey wanted to see, but Frisk was staring at him with a meaningful look.

"So that's what you were up to. Veeerrry cleeeeverrrr. Go ahead," Flowey scowled back at the groveling scientist.

"O-okay! Um, well, I wanted to apologize..."

Somehow Flowey could understand why his mother had a hard time with his own apology.

"Are you asking for forgiveness?"

"N-no, I don't think... I don't think I deserve it anyway. I'll have to deal with my mistakes."

At least in that he could relate.

"I accept the apologies, but I'm not forgiving you. I'm sorry, Frisk, but I just can't."

"T-that's fair." Alphys grinned while she frowned. "However, I want to make amends. I can't fix the Amalgamates, but I think I have a solution for you. Sans told me you have a soul now."

"Of course he did."

"W-well! It makes things easy. I can't return you to your mind's old body, obviously, but after working with Mettaton enough, I'm sure I can build you a new one and transfer you to it faster than you can say 'Cute Power Prism Makeup'! If you're comfortable about a robotic vessel, I mean! B-because I can't put a monster's soul in a monster's body, but a robot is an object. I won't put any human-killing or monster-killing programming or weaponry this time, obviously, so we don't have to worry about you hurting anyone."

"A new body..."

"Y-yeah, and it can be in whatever shape you want! You can't be harder to please than Mettaton... or can you?" She shifted and crouched lower. "Anyway, just think about it. I can't return you to your old life, but you don't have to stay a flower if you don't want to?"

His brain told him that was a terrible idea. And yet, it had been months since he had last hurt anyone. Maybe it would be alright. Maybe he could afford to hug his father or his mother once again.

He looked at his best friend, his second sibling. Frisk's smile filled him with determination.

"Actually, a replica of my old body would be fine."

"A-ah! Great!" Alphys blushed. "Except I don't know who you were before? I feel like I did, but I don't remember for some reason."

Flowey told her. The doctor's shocked face was priceless.

"Oh. My. God! T-t-t-that's Asgore's..."

"Can you make a body with fur?"

"Of course!! It will be synthetic, but it's doable!!"

Frisk grinned and sent Sans a text message, the video game console now forgotten.

 

* * *

 

 

He watched over them shyly from behind a pillar. The scene was quite suffocating, filled with awkwardness since Toriel would not deem to even glare at her ex-husband. King Asgore shifted uncomfortable from the other end of the room. He suspected that not even his return would bring them back together —which would disappoint Alphys since she hoped her real-monster OTP would be canon again, whatever that meant, and she had to ensure the boy that his body did not have any hidden cannons. He wanted both to be happy, though. He'd do his best to help them with that.

The tense atmosphere disappeared as Alphys told her story. The former queen was more than horrified with the extended version of her old confession. Before she could confront the other monster woman, perhaps with fire magic in the mix, Frisk stood between them. The child began to tell their own story, and all the things they knew about Flowey and Asriel and Chara. It was not all, but it was bad enough for the couple to be absolutely devastated.

Alphys spoke again, to explain what she had been doing the past weeks and the reason they had been summoned there. It was his cue.

Asriel Dreemurr moved away from his hiding spot. The body was not perfect, and one could see reflections on the surface of his large crystal eyes, but it was eerily similar to his old self. He was wearing a striped shirt of his that Frisk had found in the children's room at Toriel's place. The fur was soft to the touch and covered most of the screws and rivets.

"Mom... Dad... It's me. I'm so, so sorry!"

Asgore and Toriel saw no robot. They saw their beloved child, and they ran to embrace him, all yells and sobs.

Asriel had no sophisticated sense of touch or smell, but his body's sensors told him his own temperature, pressure, and humidity had increased in rates. And yet, he felt the hugs and the kisses anyway. He felt them in his very soul. He had never felt so warm in his life. The three of them, even Asriel, had tears in their eyes —was that a feature that Alphys had added?

He was himself. He had a soul. He was back home.


End file.
